bluphoto

Although you state you want to fire it wirelessly, I find the simplest way is to use a PC connection lead. Of course that assumes that you are choosing your exposure manually and not relying on ETTL etc.

Similarly, you could use a Pair of PocketWizards or Elinchrom Skyports - again no ETTL.

Alternatively, to retain TTL metering and auto-exposure, use another 580EX flash as a master firing your original flash as a slave, or do what I do and use your 580 flash as the master, and a 430EX as the slave, triggered by the master.

Note the master can be set to either trigger itself AND the slave, itself ONLY, or the slave ONLY.

Lastly, use a ST-E2 as a master instead, but I think the versatility of having two flashes is probably better.

rgds...........Guy

Yes, as Mario states, bouncing the camera off a wall will almost certailny stop you getting red-eye - or any photo at all for that matter.

Probably safer to bounce the light from the flash instead!

Although I'm sure the 40D is quite a bit better than my 20D, the difference when I switched from 20D to 5D was incredible. I simply started producing "better" pictures - without putting in any more effort.

I'd recommend a 5D any day, and to hell with waiting for the new version - it's cheap enough now.

Although I use my 24-70 a fair bit, for a trip like yours you probably won't go far wrong with a 17-40 and a 70-200 (f4IS, as landscapes don't tend to move very fast and are generally shot at smaller apertures F4IS would be the best choice for you).

You can easily switch between 40mm and 70mm if you want to include someone in the shot.

Lastly, although a beautiful landscape image is wonderful thing, I like to try to put my family in the pictures relatively often. Don't get immersed in the world of creating an image. For us amateurs, the memories are of the location, but also of the people who came along with us. Remember to take a tripod and use the timer to get shots of both of you together. If this is a once in a lifetime experience for you then you'll want to remember yourselves being in it. You can get any number of amazing shots of the National Parks on the web. The difference with your ones are that you were there.

Price drop on the current 5D will probably not be that much as it's already about GBP1k. dropped from its GBP2.5k initial price.

Given the choice of spending a grand on a 5D or two grand on a 5D2, I think I may prefer the former.

Be careful, although his camera is suitable for EF-S AND EF lenses, some people, myself included, don't like to buy EF-S lenses just in case I ever moved to full frame (which I eventually did, and he may do too).

If he does go to full frame, any EF-S lenses (such as the 17-55 I believe) will not be useable at all.

I'd say it's a toss-up between the 17-40 and the 70-200 (perhaps the f4-IS).

I love photography - in particular people photography, whether it's shooting

friends and family or professional models, whether it's modern portraits or

fine art nudes, or my son's birthday party.

I especially love model shoots, spend days and weeks preparing, gathering

intems of clothing and props, playing with ideas, shooting the models and the

editing the pictures afterwards.

Thing is, with a young family and a full time job it's hard to find ANY time to

actually get out and shoot.

Maybe the reason why I spend days and weeks preparing for model shoots, is

because I can do that from home. I feel guilty about leaving my wife at home

looking after our son, while daddy's away "playing with his camera"!

I think the only way I'm going to improve isn't by spending hours on end on the

web, looking at Photo websites and reading about technique, but actually

getting out there firing the shutter.

I wonder if there are many other people in the same position as me - people who

would love to get more time looking through the viewfinder, but find themeslves

unable to find that time in their otherwise busy lives...

If you are, then I hear you bud.

Cheers

Guy

From what I can see, a 35mm with a MF lens is simply cropping the image circle in the same way as a 1.6x crop camera (XXd/XXXd) crops the edges off a 35mm full frame image.

As such, I don't see how lens performance in the center of the image would be any worse, as Bob says, it's likely to be better than most Eos lenses at the edges - so you'll get more consistency across the frame.

Conversely, the image circle produced by the lens will be "all over" the inside of the mirror box, so there may be a chance that you'll get minor reflections disturbing your image. Haven't tried this, but it's just a thought.

That said, I'm sure the assembled lens/body combination would look like the "dogs cojones" (impressive).

cheers

Guy

Check out digitalrev in China, where I bought my 24-70 from. DigitalRev on Ebay quotes "No import Duty", but the base prices are higher! Check out their site - DigitalRev.com. Might not look as cheap as B&H, but when you tot it all up, it was the cheapest place for me, and I had no problems at all. (I'm in the UK)

You can choose whether to pay the VAT & Duty yourself when the lens arrives (17.5% + 5%), or you can pay an extra 17.5% to DigitalRev when you buy, and they will handle all vat and duty.

I chose the second way, as you're obviously saving another 5%.

Note that you also have to pay VAT and Import duty on the SHIPPING COSTS as well!

Rebecca,

Thanks, but I was asking about the difference between paper manufacturers rather than the colours. I would like to know if the colorama backgrounds are more durable, maybe less reflective, or maybe they are simply loaded on better cores, making them easier to roll up and down.

If there's no difference, then I will probably go for the Lastolite rolls instead.

Anyone have experience of another paper type - not vinyl etc.#

thanks

Guy

I'm in the market for my first three rolls of seamless, now that my garage is

ALMOST turned into a home studio.

SO I'm looking at going with neutrals first - Black, grey and white. I was

going to go with the Colorama rolls, but it appears that Lastolite are selling

rolls for around 2/3rds the price.

I was wondering if anyone had tried different seamless manufacturers. I have no

problem going with the Colorama (at GBP50 / UDS100 per roll - 2.75x11m), but

I'm not about to pay that if the Lastolite does the job just as well.

As always, your advice would be very much appreciated. (Jeez, they should

bottle this stuff!)

Cheers,

Guy

Benjamin,

You make reference to one David Hobbs. Do I understnad that you are actually talking about lighting guru David Hobby of Strobist fame?

If so, I should make it clear that David has nothing to do with the design or manufacture of RadioPoppers - perhaps other than inspiring the developers in the first place.

From memory, the designer of radiopopper was one Kevin King.

Happy popping,

Guy

Check out your home insurance policy. It often covers you for accidental damage.

If you dropped it, Canon wouldn't look at it ANYWHERE as a warranty case, but Canon Australia should still repair it for you, for a charge - which your insurance might pay for you.

I take it you don't have specific photographic insurance - maybe this will prompt you to take it out in future!

Best of luck,

Guy (UK)

I would get the 430 with little hesitation. The 420 is a decent flash but from what I've read, it does not have a manual mode (ie it is full auto only). Not a bad idea when you're starting out with the flash on camera, or on the 2-foot off camera cord, but you never know when you might want to move farther off camera and lose the auto ability, making the flash pretty much useless. The 430 will allow you to do this seamlessly.

Oh yeah, and get the cord too. Off camera flash makes the world of difference - check out strobist.blogspot.com.

If he shoots for billboards, then he's a professional. He should get the 5D- I don't think there's any question about that.

I wouldn't worry too much about dynamic range for that sort of advertising.

For that matter, I'm a little worried that he had to ask. That said, there's nothing wrong with Nikon and my advise would be to stick with, or move to the D2X / D3 and keep his lens collection intact.

Thanks to all for your enlightened responses...

G Dan: Interesting about the digital vs film issue wrt UV. I'll have to look into that!

Mark: I'm jealous! Working at a lab in Eastern California must be great compared to the wind and rain of Aberdeen Scotland! Interesting to see that you didn't notice the effect there. When I shot Tungurahua, Ecuador - a neigbouring volcano - it was positively purple compared to the lush green foreground.

Arie: Good to know I might not have to use a polariser at that altitude. my colours last year were lovely and saturated (even the purple volcanoes) and that was with no filters at all. Guess that could have been down the choice of film, though.

Paul: I checked out the polariser you mention. Not sure I'm a fan of the samples on Singh Ray's site, and as an amateur enthusiast, I'm certainly no fan of their prices! I guess you get what you pay for though.

Bob: You never fail to come up with the goods - do you!? Lovely filter review and I'll be sure to check out the Tiffen filter range.

Michael: I don't really want to invest or have the hassle of finding that book, but your information was invaluable. It led me to the following article on Kodaks site which has a lot of tech detail about Wratten filters, which, as you say, many other manufacturers filters are based on. http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/b3akic/b3akic.jhtml

Andrew: Good to know that my lenses already have some filtering of UV on board. Maybe the problem wasn't so much with the filtering of ambient, but the misuse of the emulsion (Velvia 50 is real colourful, and might just have over saturated the small amount of purple haze that was actually present)

Marco: I wonder if you were using the lens hoods when you were up there. I would imagine that low contrast coul easily be introduced by the high light levels all around the camera. (Not such a problem here in Scotland!) I'll take note to ensure I use the hoods at all times. It is wierd, but during my trip to Otavalo (crossing the equator) I had all sorts of problems with my 20D. Once I arrived in Otavalo 20 or 30km away, it worked fine. I think Standard Skylights are the way to go.

You Guys Rock.

cheers, Guy

Guys,

I really want to shoot a "trash the dress" session in a local boating lake,

but I'm understandably struggling to find a bride willing to do the deed.

As such, I'm thinking about putting together a wedding gown as a washable and

re-useable photographic prop, designed specifically to be "trashed" time and

time again.

Do any of you know if this has been done before? I was thinking about getting

an embroidered corset / bodice, or even simply a corset shaped ladies top, and

then simply clipping or tacking lengths of voile underneath to represent the

wedding skirt - I was hoping that once the voile is spread out, floating in the

water around or behind the bride, that the ensemble could be disguised as a

respectable wedding dress.

Any pointers or tips anyone could give me on doing something like this would

be appreciated.

best regards,

Guy

I'd agree that your best bet might be to employ flash and make it appear as natural light - ie sort out a softbox and maybe tape it up to look like a window.

Natural light is free and easy, but you don't get anything for nothing in this world, I'm afraid.

After coming back from a recent trip to Quito in Ecuador (at nearly 10,000ft

above sea level) I was surprised to find the quantity of purple haze on some of

my landscape shots was unbelievable.

After climbing one volcano to shoot another, although the foreground was

beautifully saturated, the amount of UV for distant subjects was unmanageable.

I was using Velvia 50 on a 1V-HS with no filters, so I guess I should have

expected this although I'd never shot at this altitude before.

I'm returning this year with a 5D and my trusty 17-40, and I'd like to give my

lenses some protection, as well as get rid of the UV haze and possibly throw a

grad in there for the sky.

I was wondering if there are any combined filters out there which will give me

UV protection which I can also use at sea level?

Are there different levels of UV filter, and is this the same as a "Skylight"

filter?

I'm looking for saturated landscapes, with little or no haze in distant

subjects at high altitude and a grad sky. I'm guessing this might too much to

ask of a full frame setup on a 5D without getting into serious "tunnel vision".

Normally each of those would be acheivable (I'm guessing) with a polariser, a

UV filter and a grad.

How do the pro's do it and not be vignetted by the filters at 17mm on full

frame? Grad and boost saturation in post production? Go with a polariser and UV

filter? UV filter alone?

Any recommendations would be super. My own recommendation would be next time to

wear a shirt - I found out the hard way that at that altidude two hours without

a shirt means two weeks without sleep!

thanks

Guy

I have Photoshop 8/CS, and I am trying to implement a graduated blur, but can't

for the life of me figure out how.

To explain a little more, imagine an picture taken at a small aperture

(everything in focus) of a ruler, with one end near the camera, and one end

farther away.

To emulate shallow depth of field, I want to keep the "1cm" end of the ruler

sharp, and have the "30cm" end blurred. The thing is I want to graduate the

amount of blurring between these two points (and carry it on into the distance).

Is this possible in CS or do I need different software?

thanks

Guy

I've been reading a whole lot of lens reviews recently (for no other reason

than filling in time - I'm not really in the market for a new lens) and there's

a lot of comment one way or another about a lenses edge sharpness, when wide

open.

I got to thinking and thought about if the photographer is shooting a flat

subject, then the edges of the subject will be farther from the camera than the

center of the subject. The only way the subject distance could be retained is

if the camera is at the focal center of a semi-spherical subject - such as the

inside of a enormous ping-pong ball.

Obviously at wide open apertures, with the shallowing of depth of field, the

edges of a flat subject will move out of the focal plane - which turns out not

to be planar at all, but semi spherical.

Is this spherical focal plane considered when evaluating lens preformance?

I'm guessing that if not, then edge sharpness is pretty irrelevant, right? Of

course there are many other factors in lens performance.

chers,

Guy

Guys,

As much as I like the pictures I shoot with my EF 50/1.8, I have to agree

with others that it's not the best lens as far as build quality is concerned.

Manual focus is a nightmare with this lens, although sometimes the focal length

is very useful.

I have a set of "L" zooms (17-40, 24-70,70-200/4IS) but I particularly

enjoy shooting with my 85/1.8 - especially in the studio/indoor locations.

I'd love to get hold of a 50mm lens which has the same build quality and

clarity as my 85, but I read that the 50/1.4 doesn't have full-time manual

focus, and uses a pretty antiquated USM system.

Does anyone else know if there are any 50mm lenses out there (1.8 or

faster, from Canon or other suppliers) with full-time manual focus (obviously

on top of AF) - for up to around the same cost as the 85/1.8?

thanks in advance?

Guy

So with the knowledge that Canon don't generally make "plastic framed version made in Bangladesh", is there any harm in taking the seller up on their offer?

"Thanks, yes, I want the plastic version from Bangladesh - oh and if you happen to have a plastic bodied 21MP 1Ds Mk3 built in a Chinese sweat shop, I'd be more than happy to take it off you for half the Japanese price".

I'm guessing if they're selling it in person then they'd appear pretty stupid when you agree and then they suddenly remember that they don't actually have one!

Thanks guys,

I downloaded the trial of CaptureOne, and it seems to fit the bill. Fortunately, I think I've got a key for it free with my Sandisk card. Can't find it right now, but hopefully will before the 30-day trial runs out!

If anyone has a spare CaptureOne LE Key they got with a Sandisk Extreme CF card, it'd be much appreciated if you could PM me with it. Only if you have one spare, you understand. Failing that I think I'll buy a new card.